Salt licks

I have a beautiful 6 point Whitetail that is bedding down behind my wood shed during the day. I always jump him when I go to get more firewood. I put a salt lick near where it beds and another on the other side of my house on the side of an access road that is almost never used.

Now I havent studied Deer like Coyote so I am not sure of their habits. Will these salt blocks get hit? Do Deer just find them? What should I expect from these. The reason why I put them out is so the Deer stick around more so my kids can watch them and such.

Yes, the deer will find them. Early spring is about the strongest desire for salt with deer, up North anyway. I don't see where you live. I'm not a regulations 'wonk' but some states have restrictions on putting salt blocks out, to do with disease transmission(real or imagined). If you have any porcupines around they will find the salt too, they love it.

You can also use bags of 'mineral' poured on the ground, which is mostly salt. Of course the brown blocks are easier to leave covertly in the woods.

Not sure why you picked salt, but a animal can only take in so much salt and requires only so much. You could provide other items like deercorn or vitamin block, that would be probably more in demands than salt for this time of the year. And would keep the deer around also.

Btw if your worried on dieases being transmitted from salt licks, get a salt brick holder and have it suspended above the ground. You can buy or makes these for real cheap.

For many years I kept a salt block in the forest by my cabin. Deer would use it day and night through the spring to mid-summer, then use would fall off. Other animals like snowshoe hare, mountain cottontail, coyote, porcupine and raccoons would go to it.

There are studies that show birds that eat road salt are often killed by auto traffic because the salt slows their metabolism and their ability to escape oncoming cars. I stopped putting the salt blocks out partly because we had two separate auto-deer fatalities where deer crossed the highway to come to our forest where the salt was. Also I no longer live there full time to get the advantage of watching activity at the salt block.

Some thoughts:
-consider the impact of traffic in locating the salt lick.
-other deer and animals will find the block so locate it where you can watch from a distance, from a blind, or from inside the house. Also, because other animals will come, your Whitetail buck probably won't bed there much longer.
-I found that deer didn't like the "mineralized" salt blocks, only pure salt.
-by end of summer you might pull out the salt block to preserve it and try corn or pelletized feed to attract them.